Publications: Nuclear Security & Deterrence Monitor

At least five glove-box breaches occurred at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in late March through mid-April, though none of the incidents resulted in worker skin contamination or otherwise compromised their health, according to two reports from the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.  Two of the breaches at the lab’s PF-4 Plutonium Facility occurred in […]

Development of several non-nuclear components is holding up fielding of the warhead that will eventually ride on the Air Force’s new air-launched cruise missile, according to Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.  Speaking with the Exchange Monitor following testimony before Senate lawmakers this week, Hruby said “we have a full list in […]

Earnings fell at Fluor, Irving, Texas, in the first quarter, which the government contractor attributed to charges on a defense contract and losses associated with the sale of an international subsidiary. But in an analysts conference call following the morning earnings release, Fluor CEO David Constable was upbeat about prospects for the company’s work in […]

Slips in the planned schedule for some parts of the Northrop Grumman LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM will occur, but the Air Force is focused on ensuring that the Sentinel is ready on time, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, said May 4. In September, 2020, the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a potential $13.3 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration, in cooperation with U.S. partner nations, plans to establish an integrated global system to detect smuggled nuclear material before it can be used in acts of terrorism.  The NNSA’s Office of Nuclear Smuggling Detection and Deterrence (NSDD) announced deployment of a Counter Nuclear Smuggling System on the federal government’s contracting […]

The flood of employees leaving National Nuclear Security Administration sites that peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic has ebbed and the workforce needed to modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex is short-staffed but holding, the head of the agency said Wednesday.  “The overall attrition is close to normal now at both Los Alamos and Sandia and […]

WASHINGTON — The secretary of energy must approve the National Nuclear Security Administration’s plan to let one company manage the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, for up to 20 years, the head of the nuclear-weapons agency said here Wednesday. Details of the cost-plus-fixed-fee contract were published on April 28. The draft solicitation included a five-year […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration did not audit more than $10 million paid to one of four companies manufacturing Molybdenum-99 for use in medical procedures, the Department of Energy Inspector General said last week.  In an effort to spur domestic production of Molybdenum-99 the NNSA awarded four 50-50 cost-share, cooperative agreements in 2019 for $30 […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration’s latest Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan, released Monday, fuzzed up delivery dates for distant, future nuclear weapons that, as recently as a year ago, had at least placeholder dates. Specially, three weapons, ground-, sea- and air-based warheads, now have “To Be Determined” first-production-unit delivery dates instead of the mid- to […]

Problems with components are mostly responsible for the two-year delay to the warhead for the next nuclear-tipped air-launched cruise missile, the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration told lawmakers Wednesday. There are “few components that are pacing the schedule” for the W80-4, Jill Hruby, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) told the […]

The director of government affairs and community engagement at the National Nuclear Security Administration left the agency this month for a career in industry, according to his LinkedIn profile. Harris Walker now lists himself as director of government affairs and a “lithium policy change agent” for Livent Corp., Philadelphia. That ended a Department of Energy […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Thursday released its draft solicitation for bids on a potentially 20-year standalone contract to manage the Pantex Plant nuclear-weapons service hub in Amarillo, Texas. The cost-plus-fixed-fee contract will have at least a five-year base with one five-year option period and perhaps as many as two more five-year options after […]

The White House’s proposal to decrease the Naval Reactors budget within the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) by 5.6% to about $1.96 billion “may be something we need to talk about,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told agency Administrator Jill Hruby this week in a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Kaine, an advocate for […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration on Friday kicked off a big environmental review of the agency’s plan for expanding the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. over the next 15 years. Among the activities the nuclear-weapons agency plans to review are: Upgrading the lab’s capability to test nuclear weapons and components in radiation-rich environments by […]

Earnings rose for Honeywell in the 1st quarter of 2023, which the aerospace and defense contractor, leading trans at five Department of Energy nuclear sites attributed mostly to a growth in commercial aviation. The company generated $1.4 billion in net income in the first quarter, about $300 million better than the first quarter of 2022, […]

NATO and the U.S. State Department this week held the 18th Annual NATO Conference on Arms Control, Disarmament and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman delivered remarks at the opening session of the conference on April 18. “NATO will […]

The Air Force and Navy on Wednesday morning used an airborne control center to test-fire an unarmed Minuteman III missile, the services said. The test gave the services a look at the Airborne Launch Control System (ALCS), an aircraft that can launch intercontinental ballistic missiles if ground-based communication with nuclear silos is disabled.  A joint […]

It will be another year before the National Nuclear Security Administration knows roughly how much it will cost to build the infrastructure to make 80 nuclear-weapon cores annually, the head of the agency told Senators Tuesday. NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby on Tuesday told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces that initial cost estimates […]

The Los Alamos Fire Department responded to 34 fire false alarms at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2022 and the obsolete alarm system continues to malfunction in 2023, according to reports from the site.  An ongoing effort to replace the existing fire alarm system at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s (LANL) Plutonium Facility at TA-55, also […]

Los Alamos County, New Mexico, started its annual budgeting process Monday night with a public hearing on the proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2024, which includes a massive more-than-doubling of the fire department outlay to cover a cooperative agreement with the National Nuclear Security Administration.  The Los Alamos Fire Department provides firefighting and emergency […]

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control Working Group, and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) have reintroduced the Restricting First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act to prohibit the U.S. President from launching a nuclear strike without prior authorization from Congress.  The legislation, filed Friday, would also institute safeguards to prevent the […]

Residents of Boston need not fear the silver-and-blue helicopters flying low and slowly over the city this weekend. They are there to test the air for unnatural levels of radiation ahead of the Boston Marathon.  The National Nuclear Security Administration’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team, or NEST, helicopters routinely overfly cities hosting major events to monitor […]

Understanding the cradle-to-grave requirements of modern nuclear weapons will require significantly more powerful computing capacity than the U.S. nuclear enterprise plans to develop, the National Academy of Sciences reported Thursday. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) “needs to fundamentally rethink the strategy for its next generation of high-performance computing” in order to achieve “post exascale” […]

U.S. Strategic Command kicked off its annual nuclear command and control training and readiness exercise, Global Thunder, on Tuesday. As in previous years, Global Thunder 23 (GT23) includes an increase in bomber aircraft flights throughout the exercise, centered at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska but involving all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad. […]

Chad Stott, who joined the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on Monday, has been named resident inspector at the Pantex Plant in Panhandle, Texas. As a resident inspector at Pantex, Stott will advise the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB) on overall safety conditions at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s central nuclear-weapons maintenance facility and […]

At the Department of Energy’s request, bidders on major nuclear cleanup contracts at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky and at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have agreed to keep their bids on the table for 60 days longer than planned, industry sources said this week. Within the past week, DOE procurement officials asked […]